Welcome to the blog for paula winicur design

Thanks so much for visiting my blog! Here you will find samples of current projects,
as well as things that inspire me. I do hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to post feedback,
email me, and share samples of your projects. To see more of my work, please visit my website.


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year a lot of my friends asked me for advice on how to make valentines with their kids, so I wanted to post what I made with my daughter, who is 2-1/2, for her babysitter and grandparents. It can be tough to find a simple project that is age-appropriate so that you can easily get your kids involved, and you don't end up doing it all yourself or taking hours to prep it.

I thought it would be nice to make something the grandparents could display beyond just a card, so this year we made heart garlands. This is a project you can do with your child regardless of their age, and depending on their skill level they can do a lot or just a little of it. The prep work I did on this was to create a heart template, and then cut out the hearts in paper of a few different colors. Each garland had 9 hearts, so it was a lot of cutting, but I did it after she went to bed and I got to catch up on tivo'd episodes of The Bachelor, which I felt was somehow appropriate for a Valentine's Day project. (Oh, Ben. Will you ever find love?)

Together we punched holes in the top and bottom of each garland, and then I gave her the hearts so she could draw on each one. Next I took twine, which I had pre-cut to lengths of about 48" each, and while she was decorating the hearts I strung them onto the twine. I tied a loop at the top, and a knot at the bottom, and together we spread them out evenly. (I also ended up making the cards -- I asked her to decorate them but she didn't like that idea, so I just drew hearts on them.) We placed the garlands in small square glassine envelopes, and put those in larger red envelopes with the cards, and away they went.



This is a very simple project, and by using different papers, embellishments, ribbon, etc, you could do this many years in a row and never have it look the same. I would love to hear what projects you did with your kids this year. Happy Valentine's Day!